Donald Trump has claimed there is “massive cheating” taking place in a battleground state – claims strong refuted by the county’s district attorney.
Writing on his own social network, Truth Social, Mr Trump said: “A lot of talk of massive cheating in Philadelphia. Law enforcement coming!”
He followed up with a post 20 minutes later claiming – without providing evidence – that police were also present in Detroit, Michigan.
Both Pennsylvania (where Philadelphia is) and Michigan are battleground states, alongside Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The Harris/Walz and Trump/Vance campaigns have made more than 200 visits to these seven states, spending a collective $1bn in advertising there during the campaign.
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District attorney Larry Krasner hit back at Mr Trump’s claims, telling his team there is “no factual basis in these allegations”.
“We have invited complaints and allegations of improprieties all day,” he wrote on X. “If Donald J. Trump has any facts to support his wild allegations, we want them now. Right now. We are not holding our breath.”
The messaging from Trump’s team mirrors the 2020 election – his campaign filed lawsuits in a number of states, including Pennsylvania, alleging election fraud.
Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the biggest disruptions to election season have been arson that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border.
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But the absence of any significant issues has not stopped Mr Trump – or the Republican Party – from making claims of fraud and interference during the early voting period.
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Republicans attempted to challenge the late collection of a number of early voting ballots, but this was rejected as “frivolous” by a US judge.
Mr Trump has suggested he won’t challenge the results of the election, provided it is “a fair election”.
Democratic candidate vice president Kamala Harris has urged voters not to fall for the Trump campaign’s tactic of casting doubt on elections.
